Famous Paintings Reviewed

More Famous Paintings by Matisse

 Email Article  

Tweet  

  

An art history blog post from Famous Paintings Reviewed.

Matisse completed one of his most famous paintings, Bathers by a River, after reworking it from 1909 to its completion in 1916-1917. This masterpiece, a main draw at MoMA's art exhibition, Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917, is a landmark in art history. Its import is not only recorded by art history experts, but also by

the famous painter himself -- when the Director of the Art Institute of Chicago wrote in 1953 to inform Matisse of the Institute's purchase of Bathers, Matisse responded that it was one of the five most pivotal paintings of his career. Examining  Bathers by the River and its textured surfaces reveals how Matisse altered art history with this ground-breaking work of art.

In preparation for this Matisse exhibition, art conservators removed old varnish and inpainting from Bathers to unearth a phenomenal surprise.  Some areas which were considered damaged were instead areas in which Matisse scratched, scraped and incised this

transformative work.  These "modern methods of construction", as Matisse labelled them, had been virtually obscured, and marked a radical departure from the European notion of smooth painted canvases lacking any trace of brushwork. Instead, Matisse's paintings in this era show him exploring and finding form on canvas as he worked, leaving a brushwork trail of reworked areas.

Matisse initially started Bathers by the River in 1909 at the request of Russian businessman Sergei Shchukin.  This patron, whose collection of famous paintings by Matisse would later form the core of the Hermitage's extensive collection, had earlier commissioned two Matisse paintings, Dance and Music, to hang in his Moscow home. Shchukin wanted a third art painting for his home, but rejected Matisse's initial conception for Bathers; it shows a 1909 naturalistic watercolor of five nude woman, two of whom were bathing in a waterfall.  Shchukin's rejection may have spurred Matisse to experimentation -- in doing so, he revolutionized the history of painting.

Some of the reworkings of Bathers have been corroborated by black and white photos, eye-witness accounts, and new digital x-ray techniques.  Conservators identified seventeen distinct color stages of Bathers between 1913 and 1916!  Stephanie D'Alessandro, an Art Institute of Chicago co-curator of this art exhibition, points out, "In the finished picture, you can see green and blue from the very earliest version of Bathers". And you can also see an expose of the creative process in one of the most famous painters in art history!

The Matisse exhibition will be at MoMA until October 11, 2010.

Love famous paintings? Learn about them with Masterpiece Cards, a set of art history Cards that reproduces and examines the greatest hits in art history.  Spanning Renaissance paintings through Pop art paintings, Masterpiece Cards makes art history fun for all ages! Explore a sample art history Card.